Earthbound Farm, whose spinach has been contaminated, has transformed its press section to an outbreak update area, providing the latest findings from health officials.

Dole, one of the leading distributors of packaged salads, has a special section on its homepage that sends readers to a statement about the recall and tells them how to avoid any possibly contaminated products. Dole even has a sponsored link on Google that sends searchers to their site for E. coli information.

National retailer Whole Foods has put together a special section as well, as they carry some of the brands in question.

Andy Boy's homepage has been replaced with a special landing page that consumers see before being redirected to the official corporate site. The statement notes that Andy Boy doesn't sell spinach, but reminds consumers to take precautions with all kinds of ready-made foods, and offers a suggestion of how to replace spinach in recipes with their other products.

By providing readily accessible nformation, and simply acknowledging the problem, these companies have taken a step in the right direction in terms of following good PR practices when it comes to keeping their customers safe.

Food companies aren't the only ones using the web for up-to-the-minute updates:

• The Food and Drug Administration's top "Hot Topic" on their homepage is the E. coli outbreak, and the link sends readers to a page with the latest press releases.
• Blogs are devoting informative posts to the topic as well, as this story from the Food Poisoning Law Blog shows.
• And if you type "Natural Selection Foods" into a Google search, the ad that shows up first is for a law firm asking, "Have you been affected by a foodborne illness?"

Whether it's a company homepage, goverment site or even a blog, the use of the Internet as a public safety tool in times of a potential life-threatening crisis is just another example of how important it is to remember the web in any successful PR game plan.